To mark its entry into the GT3 category – which will succeed LMGTE Am from 2024 – Ford has chosen a bold, colourful new look. It has partnered with designer Troy Lee and the American racer revealed today is certainly very striking.

"Ford and Le Mans are bound together by history. And now we’re coming back to the most dramatic, most rewarding and most important race in the world,” said Jim Farley, CEO, Ford Motor Company. “It is not Ford versus Ferrari anymore. It is Ford versus everyone!” Farley jokes, with a nod not only to Ford’s recent history in La Sarthe (with its Ford GT) but also to the legendary Ford vs. Ferrari battles of the 1960s.

The return to Le Mans marks the start of a “global” programme built around the Mustang. Other versions are planned, including one for NASCAR in the United States, one for Supercars in Australia, and a GT4 variant for GT championships around the world.

Ford Performance has once again turned to its long-standing partners, Multimatic and M-Sport. Multimatic, which built the Ford GT that competed at Le Mans from 2016 to 2019, will help build and support the future Mustang GT3s. Meanwhile, M-Sport, Ford’s partner in the World Rally Championship (WRC), will assemble the Ford Performance-developed 5.4-litre Coyote-based V8 engines.

“For a project like the Mustang GT3, we turned to two of our most trusted partners in the motorsports world to help bring this vehicle and programme together,” said Mark Rushbrook, Global Director, Ford Performance Motorsports.

The first customer team for this new programme is Proton Competition. The German team will compete in the FIA WEC World Endurance Championship and the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans*. Ford Performance will also field a two-car factory program in IMSA’s GTD Pro class. This will be managed by Multimatic Motorsports and begin at the Rolex 24 at Daytona next January.

*Subject to the decision of the WEC and 24 Hours of Le Mans selection committees